Williwaw

New York: Dutton, 1946. First Edition, First Printing of the Author’s First Book. With a remarkable extensive signed inscription by Gore Vidal to Dr. William Shelton Gray, Jr. written over two pages providing details on the development and history of the novel: “For Bill Gray - Twenty years later; this first (and only)edition was 5000 copies - In time, all sold - There has never been a hard-cover reprint - The book was written 1944-45 - Begun aboard F.S. 35 at Chesapeake Bay just before New Year's '44.  Finished at East Hampton, Shortly after Hiroshima – Gore Vidal, Jan 2 - 1967, NYC”. Vidal’s inscriptions in books are notoriously short even to close friends and this book has the longest Vidal inscription we have encountered anywhere. William Gray was the Chairman of the English Department at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia who edited Tennessee Williams’ only book of poetry In the Winter of Cities and one of W.H. Auden’s last poems “The Aliens” was dedicated to him.  Gray met and befriended Vidal through Williams. Hardcover, dust jacket, octavo, 222 pages.  The volume is in very good used condition with some rubbing to the cloth edges in a very good dust jacket with some rubbing, some aging, and light chipping. Williwaw is the term, widely thought to be Native American in origin, for a sudden, violent Katabatic wind common to the Aleutian Islands. The story combines war drama, maritime adventure and a murder plot. The book is a World War II novel set on a U.S. ship in the Arctic waters around the Aleutians in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the local storm season during World War II. The nervousness and tension of the crew and a handful of passengers at the approach of the Williwaw is stretched to breaking point when the Chief Engineer, Duval, falls overboard in suspicious circumstances.